Us and Them
by ILoveBeatleGeorge
Summary: Sirius loved his brother, Regulus, he always had but can the love last as the relationship dies? Their first falling out, of many, when Sirius tells Regulus those three deadly words. Written for the 'I Hate You' Challenge on HPFC.


_**One-shot for ephemereis' HPFC challenge: "The 'I Hate You' Competition". I claimed the lovely Sirius Black, and I decided that I would make young Sirius fight with Regulus instead of the obvious fight, his parents. This is focused on the beginning of the end of the brothers' civil (maybe even loving?) relationship. It's set about a week after Sirius returns from his first year at Hogwarts so it's only a few months before Regulus is due to start his. The title is a Pink Floyd song title; I suppose I have a habit of doing that. Anyway I don't own the Harry Potter series so I don't own Sirius or Regulus either.**_

**Us and Them**

"Sirius, Dad says he wants you downstairs" a boy, of eleven or so, said as he knocked on a door in a huge, old house.

The only reply that came was a mumbled no. The boy didn't react very well to this and began to pound his fists on the door, yelling for 'Sirius' to come out, he wasn't the only one whose head was on the line. Eventually the door opened. The boy that came out seemed to be an older, and slightly more handsome, version of the young boy. He glared at him before going down the stairs.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK, NEXT TIME REGULUS TELLS YOU THAT YOUR FATHER WANTS YOU; YOU COME DOWN RIGHT AWAY!" a woman yelled at the boy with a booming, horrifying voice.

A mumbled reply was uttered. The woman walked away from her elder son, leaving her husband to take care of him. A jumbled, low conversation took place; no outbursts came because Orion Black had more of a calm and quiet, though still quite harsh, approach to remediation, the opposite of his wife. Minutes later the boy, Sirius, stormed his way back up the stairs, past his brother, and into his room.

Days passed since the boy exited his room, at least publicly. He snuck down every night; stealing food, writing to his friends, and torturing the family house elf; Kreacher. Nobody seemed to pay any notice to the boy's disappearance; in fact they seemed to be almost happy that he had left them to their peace. The only one who paid any attention to it was the younger boy, Regulus. He was troubled by his brother's actions; he was ruining any chance of having good relations with the family by being reclusive.

After supper, on the third night that his brother was in hiding, Regulus ran up the steps to his brother's room. He began to knock on the door and threatening to harm, though he wasn't sure how or whom he was harming, if he wasn't admitted in. He fell into the room as the door was opened in the midst of one of his knocks.

"What do you want, Reg?" Sirius asked his younger brother, anger in his voice.

"Sirius, I..." Regulus started before deciding to start the conversation nice, rather than hostile. "What's Hogwarts like? You haven't told me anything about it since you've been home."

"Well," Sirius started, his anger fading and the surprise at his brother's request becoming evident, "it's amazing. Believe me, Reg all that crap that Bella and Cissy used to tell us when we were younger, it's all true. The staircases move and you have passwords to get into your dorms! There are amazing professors, and then there are the real bores, and the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is true; ours left because he was a fugitive, he's in Azkaban now. While I enjoy telling you about this, I suspect that you came for a different reason. Did Mum and Dad send you?"

"Umm… No, they didn't but I-uh I do have uh something to talk about with you, and it um does have to do with Mum and Dad and uh, us" the younger boy said, the color draining from his face.

"What is it, _Reg_?" Sirius asked, saying his brother's name with absolute hatred and his tone darkening as his face reddened.

"It's just that, Sirius, Mum and Dad do love you; I know they do. They wouldn't be so concerned about you if they didn't. It's really not a big deal if you would just go along with them, once or twice..." The boy was unable to continue, because he was thrown to the floor before he could go on.

"You bloody idiot, you blindly follow them no matter what." Sirius muttered into his brother's ear from on top on him. Regulus let out a small squeal, still surprised by Sirius' attack.

"You probably think Voldemort's a real cool dude, right? Like he's the bee's knees? The king of the mountain?" Sirius continued. "Just because mummy and daddy told you too, right?"

Another whimper from the boy, still pinned on the floor, answered Sirius' questions; Sirius took it as a 'yes'.

"Well, I'll give you a hint, buddy, it ain't what it seems like. Hopefully when you get to Hogwarts, it'll teach you differently; hopefully it teaches you what it taught me. I doubt you'll listen to it though, so I'll tell you as well. Voldemort is _not_ going to help you, he will hurt you; no matter what. The thing that will really help you is friends, like the friends I made this past year, good friends who tell you what they think. What they think, Reg; not what a 'Lord' tells them to think. I just hope you'll find people like that, like my friends."

After he finished his monologue he got off of his brother and motioned to the door; silently urging his brother out. Regulus walked, at a higher than average speed, out of Sirius' room and up the stairs to his own room. He was going to talk Sirius out of this, but he'd leave it until another day, he'd already had enough of his brother for the day.

Sirius was still in his room; already sure that Regulus wouldn't ever listen to his advice and already prepared for the next time that Reg tried he 'pre-Voldemort follower' tricks on him. He knew that next time Reg approached him his demeanor would be worse than today, he wasn't planning for it to be; in fact he hoped it wouldn't be, but he had a feeling that it would be. In the meantime, he decided how better to annoy his whole family then to hang up some good, old Gryffindor propaganda around his bedroom.

Days passed and Regulus avoided his brother like The Plague. Sirius made no effort to speak to Regulus; all he had wanted to say had already been said. Sirius had come out of his room the day after he and Regulus had spoken but his mother had screamed at him, for kicking Kreacher down the steps, so he was back in his room not long after. Regulus had spent most of his time in the kitchen, except nights; when Sirius would sneak food. One day, though, he didn't leave the kitchen early enough.

As Regulus was walking towards the stairs from the basement kitchen he, literally, ran into someone. Looking up he noticed it was Sirius; his elder brother. If this run-in had occurred the year before both boys would've headed back to the kitchen, laughing as they went, and they would've shared a midnight snack; but it was different now. Sirius pushed Reg back into the kitchen and then walked passed him to the open cupboard, rummaging for any kind of food.

"You coward" Regulus said from behind his brother. "Are you scared? You're scared of even talking to me, aren't you?"

"I'm not scared of you" Sirius answered, with his upper body still in the cupboard. "and I'm certainly no coward. Regulus, if anyone's the coward it's you."

"You had no right to be sorted into Gryffindor, though you wouldn't fit in Slytherin either. You're too dumb for Ravenclaw and too smart for Hufflepuff. They had nowhere to put you, Sirius, so they put you in Gryffindor. They put you in what they call "the House for the brave" but what's really the House for those who fit nowhere else; the outcasts like you and your _muggle-loving _friends. You don't even have the courage to face me, your kid brother."

At that Sirius spun from the cupboard, and turned to fully face Regulus. He glared at him, with not even a hint of remorse at what he was about to say and complete anger in his eyes, and his heart.

"Regulus, you're still doing it! No matter how much 'brotherly' advice I give you, you never listen! You're the coward, always doing exactly what Mummy and Daddy tell little Reggie to do. Perfect little Reggie's going to get sorted into Slytherin like the whole bloody family, except Sirius of course; the bloody traitor he is. Then little Reggie's going to do what Mummy and Daddy really want him to do, he's going to go and join Voldemort; right along with big cousin, Bella. The family's going to be so ecstatic of you, you little coward. I know that you don't believe what they all want you too, not yet at least, but the way that you act; it's a disgrace." When Sirius saw his brother open his mouth to respond to the last statement he held up his hand and continued. " No, Reg, you're not a disgrace to the family; you are a disgrace to me, your brother. I always thought that you'd follow my footsteps and realize how incredibly screwed up this family is. Unfortunately, I now know that those hopes were foolish and wrong. I used to love you, Reg, I really did. You were the only other hope in this family; now that hope is dead, and I'm alone. The love's dead too, Reg. I hate you."

Regulus stood there, with his mouth open; flabbergasted at what his brother said to him, as Sirius departed the room and didn't even bother to look back at his brother, the brother that he just declared his hate for. Regulus also turned to leave the room, making sure to leave a meter between himself and his brother. Both boys entered their separate rooms, neither looking back to see if the other changed his mind.

Weeks passed, and July drew nearer. Regulus and Sirius both resumed their normal routines; Regulus spending time all around the house and Sirius staying in his room except for when he went to steal food. Neither boy saw each the other since the encounter, and neither cared; or at least they didn't show that they did.

Regulus often wondered why he was _so_ mad about his falling out with Sirius; he never thought that he cared so much about Sirius. Somehow, knowing that Sirius hated him made him feel worse than just suspecting it; but the worst part was that Sirius had loved him. He knew he loved Sirius, too, but, until the falling out, he never thought that Sirius would accept his love. Part of Regulus wanted to make it right, but by doing that he was backstabbing his parents and he couldn't do that. He knew that the only way he and Sirius would be close again would be if he, also, was sorted into Gryffindor but he wasn't brave, like Sirius, and he wasn't ready to leave his family behind. He knew that, come September, he would be in Slytherin and Sirius would never forgive him. Regulus supposed that the best thing to do would be to just go along with the rest of the family and ignore Sirius, maybe even pretend that he had no brother.

Sirius had loved Regulus, he hadn't been lying as he calmly told his brother that weeks before, and he wasn't sure if he really hated him now. This was an odd occurrence for Sirius Black, when he hated someone he knew it. He _knew_ that he hated his mother; he _knew_ that he hated his father; he _knew_ that he hated his cousin, Bellatrix, but he wasn't so sure about hating Regulus. They had been best friends since Regulus was old enough to laugh at Sirius' jokes but that had slowly deteriorated as Sirius' first year had progressed. He never thought that he would tell Reg that he actually _hated_ him; he had meant to tell him that he strongly disliked him at the moment but Reg had called him a coward, which was something that Sirius wasn't and wouldn't stand for, even from Regulus' mouth; so he told him that he hated him. He was sure that he meant it, when it left his mouth at least; but he no longer felt that way, he knew, in fact, that he loved Regulus and he was going to tell him, before Regulus was sorted and their relationship was over forever.

Another month passed and the Black boys were on Platform 9 3/4, ready to start a new year and, for the youngest, a first year. Sirius hadn't told his brother how he really felt yet, but he planned to before Reggie left him forever. They had said goodbye to their parents and the two of them were walking to the train, ready to depart; almost. Sirius had found his friends, and was ready to go with them. But before he did so he looked back to his brother and said:

"You know, Reg, I really don't hate you. I still love you."

Sirius then walked to his friends and began to joke about what they were going to do in the upcoming year. Regulus stared after his brother, attempting for a moment to tell him that he felt the same way before realizing that Sirius was already gone and walking off to find a compartment with other first years.


End file.
